Victoria Blamey — who helmed New York icon, Gotham Bar and Grill, until it closed — is leading her very own restaurant: Mena (28 Cortlandt Alley, Manhattan), now open.

Before Gotham Bar and Grill — where she earned a 3-star New York Times review — Blamey ran the kitchen at Chumley’s. Originally from Chile, Blamey spent the pandemic in residences where she cooked at places like Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown and Fulgurances Laundromat in Brooklyn — where she interlaced South American techniques and ingredients in her cooking. A dish like cholgas secas — “a preservation technique from the Aysén region – is one being lost to urban Chile, and virtually unknown to the rest of the world,” she says on Instagram — is one such example: mussels served with charred caraflex cabbage, onion glaze, and fermented potato bread.

The menu at Mena is described as “technique-driven, globally inspired plates seen through a South American lens.” The $115 tasting menu also features dishes like Vermont Woodbury pheasant, dry-aged with mole; pantrucas with oxtail broth, fermented kohlrabi, nixtamalized corn, and white rice peas; and New Jersey monkfish with adobo mezcal, wakame seaweed, and black quinoa.

The restaurant, named for Blamey’s great aunt, offers 50 seats in a space designed by Cycle Projects — the same folks who designed Lilia and Loring Place.

Also, take note: A $50 per guest cancellation fee will be applied to all reservations canceled within 24 hours.

Check out the sample menu, below.

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